Pre-exposure to contrast selectively compresses the achromatic half-axes of color space

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 40; no. 22; pp. 3083 - 3088
• Main Authors: Beer, R.Dirk, MacLeod, Donald I.A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2000; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adaptation, Ocular - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Coding; Color Perception - physiology; Contrast adaptation; Contrast Sensitivity - physiology; Cortical mechanisms; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Opponency; Pattern adaptation; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Vision; Visual Pathways - physiology; Contrast adaptation; Cortical mechanisms; Pattern adaptation; Coding; Opponency; Human; Perceptual adaptation; Perception; Color vision; Preexposure; Contrast
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/S0042-6989(00)00151-6

The gamut of perceived colors can be represented in a space with bright–dark, red–green and blue–yellow axes. Pre-exposure to a field that changes periodically over time in luminance or along one of the color axes reduces vividness of colors along the entire axis [Webster and Mollon (1991) Nature, 349, 235–238]. But is it possible to reduce vividness or perceived contrast selectively for half-axes in color space? We assessed such selective compression of the bright–dark axis using a task where subjects matched tests in a pre-adapted region to ones in an un-adapted region. Tests were bright or dark pinstripes on a gray background, and pre-exposure was to multiple drifting pinstripes. Matches made after pre-exposure indicate a combination of symmetric and asymmetric compression, with more compression when adapting and test stimulus were similar in contrast polarity.